12 people perish in early morning accident at Salgaa

Wreckage of matatu belonging to Great Rift Shuttle that was involved in an accident at Teachers near Salgaa

Nakuru, Kenya: Twelve people have died during a dawn accident at Teachers near Salgaa after the vehicle they were traveling in was involved in an accident.

All the dead were in Great Rift shuttle vehicle registration KCB 824G which was heading to Eldoret.

Rift Valley Traffic Enforcement Officer Zero Arome said the driver of the passenger vehicle was trying to avoid hitting cows on the road when it hit an oncoming lorry head on.

“All the passengers in the Nissan traveling from Nairobi to Eldoret perished including the driver,” Arome said.

The driver of the trailer and turn boy who were injured are admitted at Rift Valley General Referral hospital.

Salgaa stretch which is 14kms long between Salgaa and Sachangwan along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway is one of the deadliest blacks-pot in the country which has claimed hundreds of lives over the years. In one of the horrific incidents, 131 people died at Sachangwan in 2009 when they were burnt to death after an oil tanker went up in flames after an accident.

On November 1, At least five people died in a multiple road crash involving ten vehicles at Migaa on the Salgaa stretch. The incident involved two saloon cars, four transit trucks, one double cabin truck and two canter trucks.

Despite measures by the government to curb deaths at the notorious stretch including deployment of patrol vehicle along the stretch, it has continued to claim lives with police and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) blaming the accidents on speeding, lack of discipline by the drivers and free-wheeling.